Elon Musk: A Friend of Both Trump and Putin

The worst South African import ever!

If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.

We need to put to rest the notion that Elon Musk is some kind of a business hero, especially since he purchased Twitter, changed its name to a single letter, and seems to spend the bulk of his time making all kinds of crazy posts. Sure people like to say that Musk made a name for himself when he founded Tesla but the reality is that the electric car company was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The company was looking for venture capital and they found a willing partner in Elon Musk, who gave Tesla enough money to be named chairman of the board of directors. Eberhard was ultimately pushed out of the company by Musk while Tarpenning later resigned from Tesla.

Others have written long articles and even books about Elon Musk. I decided to do things a little differently by focusing more on his posts. His words should speak for themselves and give you an idea as to what kind of person Elon Musk really is.

Despite being the CEO of so many companies, he found the time to make tweets that riled people up, such as this one in 2020 where he approves of coups in other countries so his companies can get whatever natural resources that country has. He has even said “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”

Ever since Musk purchased Twitter and took it private in 2022, he has shown what it would be like if a 13-year-old middle school boy is suddenly placed in charge of a multi-billion dollar social media company. How else can you explain his penchant for posting memes that would cause any other corporate executive to lose his job if he did the same?

Then there is this graphic featuring puppies, which looks cute on the surface, but step away from the screen a few feet and you'll see an entirely different message.

Ever since Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion back in late 2022 he has laid off a huge portion of the staff. He began to charge users for having a blue check next to their names. (Before the Musk takeover, the blue check was used as a way of verifying a user's true identity. The blue check would let users know that an account with the name of—let's say—Dolly Parton, was actually the country singer herself and not some guy in Anchorage who was pretending to be her on Twitter.) He has also fired much of the team who has monitored misinformation and reinstated previously banned accounts.

Musk decided to change Twitter's algorithm to push accounts that people don't follow under the guise of the idea that it's healthy for the freedom of speech to expose people to other points of view. In reality, those accounts that are frequently pushed by the algorithm tend to be pro-Trump, pro-Putin, right-wing accounts.

Thanks to Musk changing the algorithm, I first became exposed to the fact that there is actually a Gen-Z version of Lord Haw-Haw named Jackson Hinkle. That guy kept on appearing in my timeline even though I don't even follow that guy. His tweets became so frequent that they annoyed me. I had to mute and block Hinkle in order to stop seeing his garbage in my timeline.

According to this MSNBC article, the real reason why Musk wanted to buy Twitter in the first place is because he views it as a powerful weapon for right-wing activism. Musk’s efforts to make the platform more welcoming to right-wing extremists have resulted in a decline in users. The bottom line is that right-wing social media sites simply aren't as popular with the general public, including those who may be conservative but who aren't right-wing extremists. Unless they are into having extended online fights with right-wing extremists, most non-extremists are not going hang around on right-wing extremist platforms. If you only want to set up a non-commercial community for right-wing extremists (or any other type of niche audience, for that matter) and you only want to make just enough money to cover operating expenses, then that's fine. But if you want to set up a place for right-wing extremists and expect to earn a lot of revenue doing so, that is simply not realistic at all. As this article puts it:

The category error at the center of all of these Twitter alternatives is that right-wing shitposters don’t actually need or want a safe space to play together. They want to be a part of a battlefield. This isn’t a thing that a right-wing version of Twitter can provide, so there just isn’t a point for any of these sites to exist.

The decline in users haven't stopped Musk from making Twitter into some kind of a right-wing haven. Musk has openly supported people with questionable pasts. After Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News regarding his role stemming from the lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News, Musk allowed Carlson to host a show of his own on Twitter/X. Carlson frequently spews pro-Russian propaganda (including his notorious interview with Vladimir Putin) and sometimes Musk weighs in on the topic.

Then there is Musk’s decision to simply change the name of Twitter to X, never mind the fact that Twitter had become such a recognized brand name. What he did would be just like the CEO of Coca-Cola announcing that, from now on, the name of their iconic soft drink would be only known as the letter P while also jettisoning the red and white color pallette that has long been associated with that brand in favor of purple and yellow.

Elon Musk has long had this intense fascination with 24th letter of the Latin alphabet going as far back as naming his first business venture as X.com. After X.com merged with PayPal and Musk was suddenly out of a job, he paid a huge amount of money to obtain the X.com domain name. He shortened the name Space Exploration Technologies Corp to SpaceX. He gave the X letter to one of the car models of Tesla. He named his artificial intelligence startup xAI. He even named two of the children he had with Grimes with that letter—son X AE A-Xii and daughter Exa Dark Siderael. Now he has carried his letter X fixation over into dumping both the iconic Twitter brand name and its bird logo along with using the term “post” instead of “tweet.” Despite what he did, a number of people still refer to it as “Twitter” or “X, formerly known as Twitter.”

He also has a history of suddenly getting into major hissy fits with other companies for whatever reason. He is hostile towards Substack because that platform has rolled out its Notes feature, which is similar to Twitter in that people can make short posts about their upcoming Substack posts or highlighting Substack posts written by others. He has even decided to pick on Wikipedia by accusing it of being “hierarchical” and “biased.”

He started to refer to the Wikipedia as “Wokipedia.”

He also inadvertently outed himself as not being as tech savvy as he claimed to be when he questioned why does Wikipedia need so much money. He said that the text of the Wikipedia could be easily fit in an entire phone while not considering other issues that the Wikipedia needs to consider in order to have a functioning website, such as bandwidth. As one of Musk’s critics puts it: “Incredible post from a supposed genius who runs a tech website. Like a self-proclaimed gardening expert admitting he doesn't know how a shovel works.”

As for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk seemed to have initially sided with Ukraine. He even made a tweet shortly after the Russian invasion began where he tweeted “🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 Hold Strong Ukraine 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦” but now there's word that any user of Twitter/X who shares that old Musk tweet will get suspended from the platform.

He allowed Ukraine to use his Starlink servers as ISPs so ordinary Ukrainians can still have Internet access. But then it was revealed that Musk ordered that his Starlink service be turned off while Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Russia in an effort to regain Crimea, which Russia had annexed in 2014. This Ukrainian animation showed the high cost of Musk making such an order.

He gave an interview to the Kremlin media outlet known as RT where he said that history won't look too kindly on leaders like Zelenskyy who send their troops to die needlessly. This resulted in one person asking why Musk isn't giving the same advice to Vladimir Putin while telling the victim (Ukraine) to stop resisting being attacked.

He has likened President Zelenskyy to being a butcher.

He seems to have done a 180 degree turn regarding Ukraine where he provided this rationale on why Putin should continue with this invasion: If Putin were to back off on invading Ukraine, he would be assassinated. He proves that he is a Putin supporter by putting out memes like this one.

Elon Musk has been so deferential towards Vladimir Putin that Putin's favorite far-right philosopher, Aleksandr Dugin, tweeted this science fiction-style graphic of Musk as a hero on Mars.

Musk has been accused of being pro-Russian so many times that he issued this tweet last year on September 11 (of all dates) where he claims that he is only a citizen of the United States, the Congress hasn't declared war on Russia, and if anyone is treasonous it is those who accuse Musk of treason.

This preferential treatment also extends towards Russia's closest allies, such as the sharing of this meme that not-so-subtly blames the US for this latest round of crisis in the Middle East.

This conversation between Elon Musk and David Sacks seems to suggest that they are expecting Russia to win in the hopes that they will get something out of that victory.

Elon Musk seems to have a fascination with authoritarian dictators. How else can you explain this tweet he made where he is pictured shaking the hand of Chinese leader Xi Jinping while including this message: “May there be prosperity for all”?

He's also into past authoritarian dictators as well, such as Joseph Stalin.

While Musk has this fascination with authoritarian dictators, he is the beneficiary of US government contracts for his various companies like Space X and Starlink. As Dave Troy puts it, “The longer the administration forestalls dealing with Elon Musk and his obvious allegiances to Putin and other dictators, the more the public loses faith in American power and institutions. Our dependencies on him are unacceptable, and people know it.”

Elon Musk was born and raised in South Africa. He came from a wealthy family who owned an emerald mine. As a white guy from a wealthy family who grew up in a country that was then-under apartheid rule, he had all of the privileges accorded to him by his family background and political system. I found this interesting thread on Threads that explains how Musk’s childhood in South Africa had affected how he runs Tesla, Twitter/X, and his other countries. It's a fascinating read. Additionally there is this Substack post that explains Elon Musk's psychological profile that's also worth reading.

While there are a few South African whites who fought against apartheid and made every effort to try to undo the racist teachings they were exposed to, Elon Musk is not one of them. How else can you explain this tweet he made where he said that slavery was a normal part of life until the last century?

He has come out against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (or DEI for short), which is supposed to bring diversity to the workplace.

It has gotten to the point where he equates DEI with unsafe workplaces and he considers racially-integrated workplaces to be a threat to public safety.

He has also defended Douglass Mackey, who was sentenced to seven months in prison for an attempt to disenfranchise African American and Latino voters.

Even though Musk has a transgender daughter, he has repeatedly shown his hostility towards the transgender community.

Elon Musk is an immigrant to the US who is so disdainful of other immigrants to the US that he once arrived on the Texas-Mexican border wearing a black cowboy hat.

He still claims that illegal immigration is a great threat to the US even though there's evidence that suggests otherwise.

He's also spreading the conspiracy theory that the Democrats want to encourage more illegal immigration in order to have the Democrats permanently rule the US as a one-party state.

He has even used the issue of illegal immigration to accuse President Joe Biden of treason, despite the fact that Musk is a US government contractor.

As this tweet puts it, “Hell, yeah, we need to fix our immigration problem. Stop giving racist rich men citizenship and access to buy our government. Both Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk were graced with citizenship and who both have used their profits to scare Americans about nonwhite immigrants with the power of their money.”

Elon Musk agreed with this tweet accusing Jews of hating white people. He has also waged an online battle with the Anti-Defamation League, which has resulted in accusations that Musk is antisemitic.

He attempted to smooth things over by flying to Israel to visit Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite that attempt to prove that he's not an antisemite, Twitter/X is literally drowning in disinformation about the Israel-Hamas war due to the fact that Musk made cuts to staffers and tools that could've been used to counter disinformation.

Then there is this Adolf Hitler meme aimed at Canada that said “Stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau. I had a budget.”

The accusations of antisemitism has caused numerous advertisers to flee Twitter/X, including some major ones like Disney and Apple. This has caused an outcry by Musk to the point where he made his infamous “Go fuck yourself” statement in a video that went viral.

As Dave Troy puts it, no one is compelled to advertise on Twitter/X. If a company and/or its leader is too erratic, these advertisers will choose to spend their money elsewhere.

Despite the fact that he's the CEO of multiple companies, he seems to devote the lion's share of the attention to Twitter/X. He even once tweeted “All trolls go to heaven 😇.”

Then there are the drugs as well. Musk admitted that he takes ketamine for depression and he once smoked a marijuana joint when he appeared as a guest on a Joe Rogan podcast in 2018. Allegations of Musk’s drug use have led to one Tesla director's decision to forgo a relection bid to the board of directors. It was even said that former Tesla director Larry Ellison invited Elon Musk on a trip to Hawaii so he could “dry out” from using drugs. Maybe Musk’s alleged drug use explains why he has so many burner accounts on Twitter/X that only exist to praise him.

What to do when dealing with Musk? You can opt not to buy a Tesla car or use Starlink as your internet provider. You can opt not to visit Twitter/X anymore. But if boycotting Twitter/X is not a feasible option for you, you can still register your displeasure with Musk on Twitter/X by turning off “Data sharing with business partners.” The below tweet shows how you can do this very easily by going to Settings, then choose Privacy and safety, then choose Data sharing with business partners, and uncheck the box that says Allow additional information sharing with business partners.

For all of Musk constantly stirring up drama, it hasn't helped the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, as more people are leaving that platform. According to this Mashable article, recent documents has shown that X's revenue has plummeted by 40 percent in the first six months of 2023 after Musk took over the company. This decline is due largely to advertisers fleeing the platform due to platform changes and various controversies involving Musk.

The slow death of Twitter is measured in instances like misinformation about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and this announcement from a government department in Victoria, Australia has announced that it is quitting Twitter because they no longer consider the platform to be safe or productive.

In addition the European Union is investigating Twitter/X over the platform's spread of toxic content, including disinformation. Additionally Musk has instructed staffers not to crack down on users that post explicitly racist, sexist, and homophobic content because he views himself as a “free speech absolutist.” There are several influential accounts that are at the forefront of this disinformation. Even Twitter/X's own AI tool, Grok, has been accused of pushing misinformation and conspiracy theories.

It's no wonder that The New Republic had named Elon Musk as its 2023 Scoundrel of the Year. If he keeps it up, he might be the 2024 Scoundrel as well. I'll end this post with a tweet Musk made where he said that he wanted this engraved on his gravestone: “Never went to therapy.”

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